XP Weird Display Problem on Bootup [Home Built PC]

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From: geoff on 18 Jan 2010 08:52

My hardware/software specs are:

GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H (rev 1.1)
F11 BIOS (latest)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 1066
NZXT PS-NT-PP600-R 600W ATX
MS Windows XP Professional SP3 32-bit CD (with all updates)
HIS Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16

.. . . this started a few days ago, but when I tell xp to reboot, it goes
through the BIOS normally and the Windows XP logo appears but it is faded
and can hardly be seen. Also, the progress bar, that has green squares
moving left and right as xp loads, has no activity.

After I hit the reset button, the BIOS appears normally, as before, and
gives me the option 'Start Windows Normally' or 'Use the last good
configuration'.

I've tried both options and xp starts normally, so, the pattern is, reboot
from xp, faded initial xp screen, then boot again using the reset switch,
normal operation.

According to my UPS, my monitor and computer are pulling about 232 watts.
My temperatures are (using Everest):

MB 32c
CPU 36c (each core is 43c)
GPU 47c

I also reinstalled xp but on the first reboot, after the initial install,
the same thing happened, the xp initial screen was faded and after a reboot,
it started normally.

Once in XP, everything seems normal. Any ideas how to solve this?

Thanks.

--g

From: peter on 18 Jan 2010 10:16

Give us details on your Power Supply
it looks like a classic case of not enough wattage to start
all from cold boot but a reset starts without a problem because some
of the hardware still has power.

peter

--
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or disruptive,please ignore it.
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"geoff" <nospam(a)nospam.com> wrote in message
news:u_edndn7EZsq-snWnZ2dnUVZ_rqdnZ2d(a)earthlink.com...
> My hardware/software specs are:
>
> GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H (rev 1.1)
> F11 BIOS (latest)
> AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz
> G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 1066
> NZXT PS-NT-PP600-R 600W ATX
> MS Windows XP Professional SP3 32-bit CD (with all updates)
> HIS Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16
>
>
> . . . this started a few days ago, but when I tell xp to reboot, it goes
> through the BIOS normally and the Windows XP logo appears but it is faded and
> can hardly be seen. Also, the progress bar, that has green squares moving
> left and right as xp loads, has no activity.
>
> After I hit the reset button, the BIOS appears normally, as before, and gives
> me the option 'Start Windows Normally' or 'Use the last good configuration'.
>
> I've tried both options and xp starts normally, so, the pattern is, reboot
> from xp, faded initial xp screen, then boot again using the reset switch,
> normal operation.
>
> According to my UPS, my monitor and computer are pulling about 232 watts. My
> temperatures are (using Everest):
>
> MB 32c
> CPU 36c (each core is 43c)
> GPU 47c
>
> I also reinstalled xp but on the first reboot, after the initial install, the
> same thing happened, the xp initial screen was faded and after a reboot, it
> started normally.
>
> Once in XP, everything seems normal. Any ideas how to solve this?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --g
>

From: geoff on 18 Jan 2010 10:54

"peter" <peter(a)nowhere.net> wrote in message
news:FW_4n.18944$YP1.5533(a)newsfe15.iad...
> Give us details on your Power Supply
> it looks like a classic case of not enough wattage to start
> all from cold boot but a reset starts without a problem because some
> of the hardware still has power.

The PS is a 600W:

NZXT PS-NT-PP600-R 600W ATX

.. . . it is no longer sold at Newegg but they still have the specs:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817116008

--g

From: Big Brother on 18 Jan 2010 11:40

From: Paul on 18 Jan 2010 18:19

geoff wrote:
> My hardware/software specs are:
>
> GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H (rev 1.1)
> F11 BIOS (latest)
> AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz
> G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 1066
> NZXT PS-NT-PP600-R 600W ATX
> MS Windows XP Professional SP3 32-bit CD (with all updates)
> HIS Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16
>
>
> . . . this started a few days ago, but when I tell xp to reboot, it goes
> through the BIOS normally and the Windows XP logo appears but it is faded
> and can hardly be seen. Also, the progress bar, that has green squares
> moving left and right as xp loads, has no activity.
>
> After I hit the reset button, the BIOS appears normally, as before, and
> gives me the option 'Start Windows Normally' or 'Use the last good
> configuration'.
>
> I've tried both options and xp starts normally, so, the pattern is, reboot
> from xp, faded initial xp screen, then boot again using the reset switch,
> normal operation.
>
> According to my UPS, my monitor and computer are pulling about 232 watts.
> My temperatures are (using Everest):
>
> MB 32c
> CPU 36c (each core is 43c)
> GPU 47c
>
> I also reinstalled xp but on the first reboot, after the initial install,
> the same thing happened, the xp initial screen was faded and after a reboot,
> it started normally.
>
> Once in XP, everything seems normal. Any ideas how to solve this?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --g
>
>

The motherboard has built in video. What happens if you don't use the 3870 and
use the built-in video instead ? Do you always successfully get through that
point ? If so, it points to some minor issue with the 3870.

*******

The "faded" appearance at startup, could be how the Windows logo is done. I
think it fades in from black. So the first frame of the logo which is non-black,
would be a faded image. And as they continue playing the animation, eventually
the image is presented at 100% (proper intensity etc). So your failure could be
happening just as the logo animation starts to play. I haven't a clue what that
means, especially as you're able to get past that point by rebooting.

Video cards can be run a couple of ways. They support "VESA" modes of some type,
with the intention that every video card shares something in common with other
cards. And the OS has a built-in VESA driver, so even if you don't install the
video card company drivers, there is the VESA driver to use so the user has some
screen to work with. The VESA driver may support resolutions like 640x480 or
800x600. It is one of the reasons you can "uninstall" the ATI driver, and the
next time the computer boots, there is a screen to look at. If you didn't have
the VESA driver as a fall-back, there'd be no screen to look at.

When a computer starts, some simplified mode like that has to be used at first.
The BIOS screen, at 640x480, could be a VESA mode. The WinXP logo playing
(while booting is going on in the background) could be using something
like that as well (animation being loaded to screen while video card is in
VESA mode). It is when the desktop first appears, that the "regular"
drivers are loaded. And that is more normally a stressful time for the computer,
as a lot of issues show up, just as the real desktop first appears.

I haven't a clue as to why it would choose to freeze at that moment. It could
even be, some boot file is not loading or something. If you can figure out
how to do it, maybe you could use Safe Mode (F8) "boot logging" to see where
it gets stuck. Either the video is the problem, or some file is not loading
from your hard drive at that instant. You may be able to look at the disk
drive LED, and if the LED is still flashing, and yet the screen is "faded",
it could be that just the video has stopped updating and the disk and your
boot files are fine.

F8 Safe Mode

"Enable Boot Logging

Creates a file named ntbtlog.txt, that lists all the drivers that are
installed during startup and that might be useful for advanced
troubleshooting."

Once the computer is booted, are there any problems playing 3D games
or doing other stress tests ?

HTH,
Paul

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